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Francesca Pascale, the fiancée of Silvio Berlusconi, is suing a Bulgarian actress for €10m after she claimed in a TV interview that the pair had a lesbian love affair.

Pascale is demanding a minimum of €10 million in damages from actress Michelle Bonev and the journalists behind the interview, Il Messaggero reported on Thursday.

In the interview, broadcast earlier this month on La7, Bonev claimed she had a relationship with 28-year-old Pascale. The actress alleged that Berlusconi’s fiancée is a lesbian and her relationship with the former prime minister is a front.

But Pascale and her lawyers assert she has suffered “serious defamation”.

She is “a victim of a malicious and planned exploitation”, her lawyer said, quoted in Il Messaggero.

Pascale’s motivations for getting engaged to the 77-year-old billionaire have often been questioned, since Berlusconi announced the pair were an item in December.